9/10

Noid legitimises Yves Tumor as a major new talent with a buoyant debut single for Warp that’s unlike anything he’s released to date. Noid features a bittersweet melody and bold singing over the top of a heady swirl of beats and sampled strings. It is reminiscent of The Avalanches or Edan’s Fumbling Over Words That Rhyme with its dense, heavily layered production and jagged beats, but with a charm and new-found pop sensibility all its own. The track cascades along in a wall of sound style with a swirling kaleidoscope concoction of samples and noises, with deft starts and stops strategically placed to give the track a real drive.

The lyrics convey a general dread of modern society for people of colour, with a refrain of “9-1-1, can’t trust them”—a reference to the U.S.A. helpline which tends to not send help to calls from predominantly African-American neighbourhoods, and immortalised in Public Enemy’s 911 is a Joke (1990).

Previous works by Yves Tumor have seen him embrace myriad styles, including 2016 album Serpent Music’s impossibly lush The Feeling When You Walk Away alongside more clamorous noise workouts, and last year’s somewhat head-scratching lo-fi spiritual concept album Experiencing The Deposit Of Faith. Coupled with his globe-hopping habits, enigmatic interviews, audacious fashion sense, and now with single Noid on prestigious label Warp Records, Yves Tumor has arrived.